Sermon
Stop Criticizing
October 2-3, 1999
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our Bibles together. We're in Matthew chapter 7 today. The subject today is stop criticizing. The words of Jesus, "Judge not, that you be not judged. "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. 

Now we must remember that this sermon was first preached to Jewish people, and thus there are many Jewish ideas and concepts that are involved in this sermon. And one of them was this, if you went to a synagogue 2000 years ago the rabbi would say to you, he who judges his neighbor favorably will be judged favorably by God. He would also say that there are six important things to do in this life that will receive profit in the world to come. First, study; Second, visit the sick; Third, hospitality; Forth, devotion in prayer; Fifth, the education of children in the law; and Sixth, thinking the best of other people. And so the Jews knew that kindliness in judgment is nothing less than a sacred duty. 

Now one would have thought that this would have been a commandment easy to follow because history and our personal lives are strewn with examples of where we've made judgments that were wrong and we were ashamed of them afterwards. Let me illustrate. Some years ago a six-year-old lad was sent home from school with a note from his teacher, and the teacher said, take this boy out of school. He's too stupid to learn. The boy was Thomas Edison. 

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin's mother-in-law hesitated at letting her daughter marry the printer? She said there were already two printing presses in the United States and I fear the third one won't make it. Here's how the Chicago Times in 1865 evaluated Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. This is what they said. And I quote, "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flattened, dish watery utterances of a man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of our United States." Did you know that old Daniel Webster, the politician, traveled back and forth across the states in his old horse drawn cart and he lectured on why railroads would never be successful. And here was his logic. He argued that frost on the rails would prevent a train from moving or if it did move, you couldn't stop it. Yes, history has been filled with many misjudgments. 

There's a Japanese proverb that says, search seven times before you suspect anyone. Jesus said, don't pass judgment. The grocery man picked up his telephone and on the other end of the line was an irritated mother, and she said, sir, I sent Jamie down to your store to buy five pounds of apples and when he got home there were only four and a quarter pounds. Implying that his scales were wrong. The grocery man said, madam, my scales are regularly checked and inspected, and they are correct in measurement. May I suggest that you weigh your son. We're so quick to pass judgment.

There was a man riding in his rail car, Santa Fe rail, across the state of Oklahoma many years ago. And he was pompous, and egotistical, and wealthy, and arrogant, and he wanted to enjoy his train ride, but sitting across the isle was a little mother who had a child who was crying. And the crying child was evidently disturbing quite a number of the passengers, and so this arrogant man stood up and said, Woman! Can't you keep that child quiet? The little mother dressed in black with tearful eyes said, sir I am doing my very best, but this child is not my baby. Well, he said, then where's its mother? Sir, the mother is in her coffin in the baggage car just up ahead. 

Making judgments when we don't understand, and that's the word that Jesus used here. It's in the Greek. It's the word krino, k-r-i-n-o. And it has multiple meanings, and yet in this particular passage it's referring to judgments made on motives which no human knowledge can know of another, and to judgment of external forms. Jesus said do not judge, and what He was saying is we don't have the capacity to know the motive of a person. We don't understand all of the circumstances. We don't understand the pain that oft times people go through which brings them to a point of action which we're so quick to judge. 

Jesus said judging people's motives is taking the place of God. You can't judge and it's totally unchristian, totally unchristian. There are areas where we do judge. I know some people today you say any point of criticism, well the Bible says don't judge. Well just a minute. The Bible does say to judge. When someone is violating God's standards we call it sin. When the message that goes out is heresy we call it a false prophet. By their fruits you know them. And throughout the Scripture we are given situations in which we as Christians are obligated with divine responsibility to make a judgment and so speak it. But Jesus is not speaking of judging someone who has violated the standards of God. He's talking to a very specific issue. 

You and I do not have the capacity to know the motives and know all the circumstances of another life. You know, I tell this story every time I preach on this subject because it has written something so indelibly in my mind. I haven't forgotten it for 30 years. As an arrogant, pompous, young preacher I went to the Daly City Post Office and as I drove up I saw this man pulling out one weed at a time out of the garden, the flowerbeds. So I walked in to the postal clerk and I said, no wonder our postage is getting so high when you hire people like that to do your gardening! He knew me and he looked at me and he said, Preacher, you didn't have the guts to go to war. You hid somewhere in a college while the war went on. That man went to war and somebody threw a hand grenade into his foxhole and blew out his brains. And he lost his brains so you could have your freedom, and who do you think you are passing judgment on that man when that's all he can do? I tell you. I felt so small and he said here's your postage get out of here. I tell you the thing that really hurts me, every time I think of this I say, God, did that man, will that man get into heaven. Did his perception of Christianity, was it so miscolored by my ugly judgment that he would say, if that's what Christians do, and especially a preacher, I don't want anything to do with Christianity. And I've said, God, may that never be so.

Jesus said you measure out criticism and it will be measured back to you. You'll get it for sure. If you pass out hate you'll get it back. There's something about life that's reciprocal. What you put out comes back to you. And Jesus said with the same criticism you pass on somebody else somebody is going to criticize you, just bet on it. It's a law of life. He said we run about with telephone poles, planks, hanging out our eyes and He's representing that as sins and wretchedness of our own heart, and we're filled with sin and yet we've got the arrogance to think that we can pass judgment on somebody else's speck. Jesus, He must have gotten a laugh on that one because here's the picture He painted. Here's this man dragging this telephone post saying, just a minute now I'll find your speck in your eye. What Jesus is saying is we're so laden with sin ourselves that the telephone post blinds us from making proper judgment on anybody else. That's true. 

Some years ago I took this verse to heart and I said, God, would You let me see myself as You see me? Telephone posts and everything. God began to talk to me about my pride and my arrogance, and I tell you it was the most miserable time. I said God, and I tell you it became so painful. If we spend time working on our own failures and our own sins we won't have time to pick at anybody else. It's a full time job ladies and gentlemen. That's Jesus' point; that we only qualify to pass judgment if we were God. Jesus said you'll get it back. Don't judge. That's God's job. You've got so much sin of your own. You've got a plank hanging out of your eye. Why try to pick out a speck in somebody else's eye. Clear up your first. That's all clear, but then He added that sixth verse. Why did He put that there?

Look at what He said. "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine. You say why did He put that verse in there? Because Jesus knew in this whole issue of passing judgment there were some areas that were exceeding sensitive. It had to do with that which was sacred and that which was divine, and He's simply saying in those days dogs were never domesticated. They didn't have pet dogs. They were wild and they ran the street, and they were ravenous and they would bite you. And He compared them. There were the pigs and He said if you put food out and then you walk between the food and pig, the pig will get you first. Claw you with its hooves; tear you to pieces. It has no respect for you, and what He was doing was using a Hebrew illustration. He is saying there are some things that are so sacred you are selective in how you disperse them. 

What do you mean? Remember when He was telling the disciples to go preach and telling them what to do, and then He said if they don't receive you, you go to the edge of the city take off your sandals, shake off the dust and go on. What is He saying? There are just some people who will not be open to anything that's sacred and right and there comes a point when you stop casting your pearls, your precious spiritual truths, before people who don't appreciate it one iota. Paul in his preaching was going from city to city over there in Asia Minor, and those Jewish people were mistreating him. And he got so angry he went to the edge of the city and said, your blood be upon your heads! I'm going to go preach to the gentiles. What's he saying? I'm not going to cast precious godly truth before you anymore because you've proven you have no respect for the sacred or for the divine. 

You say Pastor, why did Jesus tuck that verse, one verse, right there? Because I believe ladies and gentlemen that in living our lives there are some things we pass judgment on in the sense that they are sacred, and they are holy, and there are just sometimes you cannot share them with others because they'll rend you, they'll misunderstand you, they don't care, they haven't got the slightest interest in spiritual things. As I was studying that I thought has there been an experience in my life where I've stopped handing out the pearls to the non-appreciative, and I remember a neighbor many years ago. I couldn't share godly things. I mean he'd mock me, and I was the preacher and I was dumb. I finally had to come to the point, no longer could I share the pearls of eternal life with someone who every time I opened my mouth turned around and rended me. So Jesus said in this whole matter of judgment, just remember there are some things so sacred that we protect how we dispense them. That's a fascinating thought. Don't judge that's God's job. You can't judge because your eyes are full of splinters. You can't see. You're too sinful yourself. I'm too sinful to pass judgment on somebody else. Spend my time getting my own heart right and I won't have time judging somebody else, and there are some things that are divine treasures that I am very cautious as to who I share them with. But that's interesting, isn't it?

Let's pray. Lord Jesus thank you for being so clear. Forgive us, forgive me, for the many times we've made terrible judgments on people. Only to learn things that brought us deep shame and grief after we made them. Please forgive us and help us to be exceedingly cautious and lovingly charitable in our human relationships. Help us to be like You dear Jesus. That little lady that was accused of prostitution, dear Jesus, brought to you by the disciples. They passed their judgment, but You knew her heart and You loved her, and she left Your presence with joy. May we equally forgive and lovingly not judge anymore, in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. God bless you.